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You already know thorough, careful, and strategic planning is critical to growing a successful business. This goes for all aspects—from finances to operations to, of course, marketing! And in order to make sure all of your marketing trains are running smoothly as possible, are on time, and are actually getting to their destination, it’s best to use a marketing calendar as a living document that keeps track of all your activity and tactics.
Below we’ll dive into exactly what a marketing calendar is, why you should have one, and how you can create your own.
Successful marketing requires a great deal of planning ahead and many moving parts; without a way for your whole team to keep track of all of those moving parts, it can get to be a little overwhelming. That’s why a cohesive, syncable marketing calendar is a must-have tool for a growing business. It allows you to track goals with ease and keep a pulse on the marketing activities that will help you achieve them.
Salesforce found that 86 percent of workplace failures stem from a lack of collaboration; a marketing calendar works wonders as the single source of truth to keep everyone on the same page.
Content marketing is the strategy of creating quality content for use across various digital marketing channels. The difference between content marketing and traditional marketing lies in the value offered to the reader. Traditional marketing focuses on everything the brand wants the world to know. In contrast, content marketing focuses more on the reader’s wants and needs by answering their questions, showing them how to solve a problem, and generally providing information of value and relevance at no cost to them.
Marketing calendars come in several different forms. The right type will depend on what you’d like to use it for. A few examples of tactic-specific calendars include:
The point of a marketing calendar is to plan and schedule content in a way that makes things easier for you—so the best way to create one will depend on your company’s needs. You may also find you need to adjust the setup of your calendar as you figure out what works best and how many people will be in and out of it. However, there are some key aspects to keep in mind as you build your marketing calendar.
To get started, we suggest breaking a sheet down into the following columns:
While these are the basic pieces of information that should be included in your marketing calendar, it’s also helpful to include who on your team is in charge of which pieces of content and how you will measure the success. This will keep everyone on track and allow everyone to understand the objective at hand.
In many cases, multiple calendars for different channels and types of content will be necessary. Additionally, it’s important to make sure your calendar is shareable, syncable, and easy to use! Half of a marketing calendar’s importance is keeping your whole team on the same page, so being able to easily make adjustments and edits that the whole team can see in real-time is vital.
At the end of the day, your marketing calendar should allow everyone to easily see exactly what needs to be done and by when.
As you can see, a marketing calendar is an essential tool. However, building one from scratch can take a lot of work, and we know you don’t have that kind of extra time.
That’s why we’ve created an easy-to-use marketing calendar template to help you get started. It has everything you need to start planning and scheduling the content that will land you right in the eyes of your target audience. Download it today to start customizing it for your unique business’s needs.
Marketing Manager Ann Ehinger serves as the link between clients and creative to drive projects that deliver results. With over a decade of experience working in the nonprofit, technology, and agency space, Ann is adept at managing a project from idea to completion while navigating all the ups and downs that pop up in between.
&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.
Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?
We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.
Concerns over privacy dominated social media in 2021, making these all-important platforms feel more complicated than ever. Given the landscape, it is tough to know where to begin planning for 2022. Thankfully, we’ve done a deep dive into what the experts predict for the coming year and updated our annual Social Media Playbook to share the top 2022 social media tips all in one place. In it, you’ll find a run down of each social media platform ranked in order of importance. You’ll also find highlights from 2021 along with what to expect for 2022.
Leads generated from LinkedIn have proven to be substantial and well worth the investment. The problem? Buyers are getting more sophisticated and don’t want to feel like they are being sold to or spammed. This means marketers will need to walk the fine line between promoting their business and engaging with their audience and industry peers in an authentic, meaningful way. Not an easy task, but absolutely essential when it comes to using LinkedIn as a selling tool.
Influencers will continue to dominate, especially on image and video-heavy platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Brands that utilize these platforms should absolutely consider using influencers to up their 2022 game. Why? Because the fact remains—when it comes to deciding whether to make a purchase, people trust what other people say about a product or service more than they trust what a brand says. While brands should still communicate directly with its audiences on social media, having a trusted third-party back up a brand’s claims is a powerful way to convert leads to sales.
There is no way around it-—the world changed dramatically over the past few years and with it, so have people’s expectations for how a brand should behave. In 2022, people will expect their favorites to support social causes they care about. This can create choppy waters to navigate, but the payoff is worth it. Cause marketing lends itself to strong audience engagement. And strong audience engagement lends itself to brand loyalty.
On almost all platforms, video appears to be taking the lead role. Platforms are investing in new ways to create and post small, snackable videos like Facebook and Instagram reels or YouTube Shorts. Even LinkedIn is rumored to be adding short-form video to its platform. It’s no secret platforms reward videos by making them higher in their algorithms, therefore more likely to show up in your audience’s feed. If you want your content to be seen and engaged with (which obviously you do), opting for video will give you a leg up.
In a time when uncertainty reigns, knowing what to expect can make it feel impossible to plan with confidence. While there will certainly be surprises in store for what social media will bring us in 2022, it’s important to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s changing. Staying attuned to what the experts are predicting can help marketers come up with a winning strategy. Download the 2022 Social Media Playbook to get ahead of the curve, or fill out the form below to talk through your social media strategy with one of our experts.
We also recently held a webinar with an expert panel where we discuss how you can develop a marketing strategy that directly aligns with your business goals. You can watch the replay here
Want to talk to someone on our team about how you can put all of these ideas into practice? Just fill out the form below.
Marketing Manager Ann Ehinger serves as the link between clients and creative to drive projects that deliver results. With over a decade of experience working in the nonprofit, technology, and agency space, Ann is adept at managing a project from idea to completion while navigating all the ups and downs that pop up in between.
&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.
Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?
We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.
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